[OSGeo-Discuss] Report from the OSGeo Board meeting

[Daniel Morissette]

Thank you Frank, Arnulf and Michael for your answers to the questions so 
far. What you wrote matches my thinking as well so you save me from 
having to write another long answer.

I might just add that as the new treasurer, my plan is to bring the 
finance committee back to life, try to get a better handle on finances, 
starting with a budget to be drafted by the committee, and to outsource 
all the paperwork (book keeping, accounting, taxes, etc) to specialized 
professionals who are much better and efficient at this than us. I do 
that already for my own business so I am confident that this will be a 
better solution for OSGeo as well.

Daniel


On 11-09-21 03:59 AM, Michael P. Gerlek wrote:
> Arnulf and Frank have already spoken up, and I think they've captured the
> sentiment of Sunday's board decision well.
>
> To emphasize three points, if I may:
>
> * Our foundation has been financially backed by a small set of donors and
> the FOSS4G conference.  We have lost ground on former source, and the latter
> source has proven to be extremely volatile.  From a business standpoint,
> this is not a sustainable path. The ED has been the single largest financial
> cost to the foundation, and so given our current funding model, the cost for
> the functions performed wasn't justified.
>
> * I wrote recently that there three kinds of functions needed here:
> administrative (bookkeeping, answering mail, etc), tactical (project
> management, sys admin), and strategic (fundraising, outreach).  The first
> can be done by a mixture of outsourcing and volunteers, and we're already
> taking steps for that.  The second is done already by very competent
> volunteers.  The third requires a very specific set of skills we will likely
> hire or contract out for; in the near term, the board and other non-board
> volunteers will shoulder this (as they have been doing for years, though
> often unacknowledged).  This will be an evolving process, of course, and the
> discussion with the community is now underway.
>
> * There is considerable difficulty in discussing personnel matters with the
> community.  Some board members have discussed these matters with other
> individuals privately, both proactively and reactively, to consider the
> foundation's positions and options.  However, those were private
> discussions: the board cannot discuss personnel issues on a public mailing
> list.  I'm sure you all can appreciate that.
>
> Thanks -
>
> -mpg
>
>
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-- 
Daniel Morissette
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